Saudi NATPET to allocate PP into European regional centres

06 October 2011 16:16[Source: ICIS news]

LONDON (ICIS)--Saudi Arabia’s polypropylene (PP) producer, National Petrochemical Industrial Co (NATPET), aims to allocate 20–30% of its production to European converters when current discussions are completed, following its intention to establish regional storage and distribution centres in the Benelux region, Germany, northern Italy, France and United Kingdom, a company source said on Thursday.

Natpet has a 400,000 tonne/year PP facility at Yanbu, in Saudi Arabia.

“Commercial discussions are still taking place,” said the source, who expects volumes to be moving towards the new European hubs by early 2012.

On Wednesday, NATPET signed partnership agreements with European logistics providers DE RIJKE and Katoen Natie, both Belgian, to establish the new regional centres.

“This is a landmark moment for NATPET as these agreements allow us to firmly establish our presence in the European and UK markets and bring us much closer to our European clientele base. De RIJKE and Katoen Natie are renowned the world over for their top-quality logistics services and we hope these partnerships will bring more value and success to our customers,” said Natpet president and chief operating officer Jamal Malaikah.